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KaiserIOT
| link = Game thread UN group }} KaiserIOT: Dream of a World is the first Imperium Offtopicum game created and hosted by KaiserElectric. The game was first announced during Summer 2014 and officially launched 23 August. Inspired in part by Imperium Offtopicum XIV, the game is primarily roleplay-based; unlike the earlier Saviors of a Divided Nation, players do not participate as superheroes or supervillains but as regular nations, and influence behaviour of the world's supers through national policy. The game entered unofficial hiatus in late November as KaiserElectric focused on school work. It was intended to resume in late December, but this was postponed after the disappearance of Mathalamus and VGL, whom he considered important to several ongoing storylines. Public anticipation and his own desire to continue the game led to a reboot in May 2015. Game mechanics The game begins in 2022 with each turn representing a three-month season, the first update taking place in January. The game features separate statistics for Political, Economy, and Military Strength, and a fourth measure of Super Acceptance further detailed below. Territory New nations can claim up to 10 territories either contiguous or in close proximity. Each turn the game moderator states how many new provinces can be claimed, currently 5. There are presently no special rules regarding claims. Combat Combat is conducted through war plans to the GM; results incorporate a degree of randomness, but are determined primarily by common sense at the GM's discretion. Supers Superhumans or "supers" are special individuals without fixed allegiance that, as their name implies, have access to unusual abilities and/or equipment. In-game there are 13 unique non-player characters, each with a particular moral alignment and strategy. The game's fourth statistic, Super Acceptance, is a measure of public approval of superhero activities within a country, influenced both by state legislation and the actions of supers themselves, and in turn influences the effectiveness of laws pertaining to supers. It also gauges the likelihood of super activity within the country, for better or worse. Storyline The universe of KaiserIOT begins shortly before World War II when British biological chemist Barlowe Longstaff conceptualizes a serum to create super-soldiers. During the war, MI6 recruits Longstaff into a secret project codenamed Halifax, which in 1941 achieves its first successful prototyping with retired RCMP officer James Howlett, who serves in numerous high-profile campaigns in the European front. Nazi Germany later acquires details on Halifax and attempts a copycat project under direction of Field Marshal Rennard von Fertig, which supplements missing data through gene splicing with wild animals; the resulting feral hybrids are deemed so monstrous that Adolf Hitler forbids their deployment, leading to his assassination that provokes a schism within the German army. Commanders opposed to von Fertig rally under Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, and on 16 July 1944 meet with Allied forces in Normandy, pledging their support against the madman and his monsters. While von Fertig's supersoldiers manage to stall the Soviet advance, the combined western armies ultimately seize Berlin and Major Howitzer intercepts the general when he attempts to flee in a prototype long-range bomber. Plans to partition Germany are scrapped in a sign of goodwill to von Kluge's defectors, and a puppet government is established under Claus von Stauffenberg. While relations with the West normalize, Germany fails to establish rapport with the Soviets. As the Cold War sets in, relations between Europe and the Americas unexpectedly sour as France, claiming the Allies had deliberately stalled the liberation of the country for ulterior motives, shuns Britain in favour of closer ties with the new German state, solidified by the 1950 Strasbourg Treaty. The overthrow of the Spanish Nationalist government shortly thereafter is seen as the herald of a continental challenge to the fledgling bipolar world order. Even after the Soviet government achieves its own superhuman, Neytronov, the following decades witness a relatively stable balance of power. Then in 2016, Earth is attacked by an alien armada dubbed the "Other", intent on wholesale human extermination for unknown purposes. Banding together, the nations of the world fight for five years to turn the tide, finally defeating the invaders after Neytronov personally destroys the orbiting mothership. The game proper begins one year later; in the aftermath of the war of the world most governments have either collapsed outright or radically realigned, and supers and state agencies alike scour the wreckage of the Other's battle fleet for salvageable alien relics. Yugoslav–Roman War In 2022 Yugoslavia launched simultaneous invasions of neighbouring states, devastating urban centres and imprisoning tens of thousands of captured civilians. When Turkey declared independence as monarchist Byzantium, Belgrade immediately sought to delegitimate the government, prompting the Emperor to retaliate with a denouncement of Yugoslavia's flagrant disregard for human rights. Seeking to solidify its control of the Balkans, Belgrade attempted to buy Istanbul (renamed Constantinople), but the Romans backed out over public furor and Belgrade declared total war, supported by the Gethic Hand. What was expected to be an easy victory unravelled as Neytronov intervened on Rome's behalf and Italy launched a counter-invasion against Yugoslavia's western flank. In an attempt to bolster its manpower, Belgrade released several thousand radical Islamist convicts into what it declared the "Islamic State of Bosnia" with the expectation they would attack Rome or Italy; instead they turned on the atheist Yugoslavians. Testifying to growing desperation, Belgrade posted a bounty on the Roman Emperor shortly before committing wide-scale purges of the military. In the Summer, Egypt sponsored a peace summit between the three major combatants, culminating in the Treaty of Cairo. Gethic Crisis In the Spring of 2022, the Gethic Hand began colonization of California as the prelude to a takeover of the American Midwest. Publicly advanced as a restoration of peace and order, its real purpose was a springboard into Wyoming to seize control of uranium reserves. While Cascadia was willing to grant quid pro quo recognition of sovereignty, Texas opposed what it saw as undue intrusion into its own reconstruction efforts, triggering Vancore to denounce the state as "traitors" and issue thinly-veiled threats of force. While Texas officially withdrew from Wyoming, the established settlers refused to bow to the Gethic invaders and organized as the San Jacinto Guerrillas. Marginal anti-rebel propaganda success was undone when a Gethic bomber was downed in late Spring over Lander, detonating a payload of nerve gas that claimed several hundred casualties. While the Hand tried to spin the disaster as the rebels' fault, international opinion turned sharply against Vancore and several states began investigating containment policies. See also * KaiserIOT 2 External links * Game thread * UN group Category:Science fiction games Category:Post-apocalyptic games Category:KaiserIOT